...does it matter if a character's name somewhat resembles the author's?

As a reader all I have to work with is the information provided to me by the writer. Why would you make a character's name resemble the author's and then not expect me to see some sort of relationship? It is not reasonable for me to think that unintentional.

“We must not always talk in the marketplace,” Hester Prynne said, “of what happens to us in the forest.”-Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

One question: I'm still a relative newbie here, so can either of you, or someone else, offer a rough, initial list of Topics That Bore Harlan to Tears and Hence Are Best Discussed in the Annex?

(I very happily give Jan credit for both the idea and execution of the Annex. It's a great addition to the Forums, and all I contributed was an enthusiastic nod and a couple of mumlbed "uh-huh, uh-huh"s.)

Harlan tends to get bored with politics, endless movie debates, and endless "he said, she said" debates. The intent of the Annex is to be less topicly driven than are the other threads, and more of a freewheeling give and take commentary.

Jan?

- I love to find adventure. All I need is a change of clothes, my Nikon, an open mind and a strong cup of coffee.

Frank, with all due respect, can you keep the one-liners to a minimum in this thread? It should resemble the Pavilion more than your own threads. I want to see how it works out but we should start on the right foot. This is not meant to be an additional place for forum regulars to spread out in but for Pavilion visitors (including us) to use intelligently. I'm not moderating this forum, I'm only trying to get the idea across.

The fact that we don't have a permanent topic does not mean we'll just hang around and talk about nothing. Ask questions, bring up interesting subjects, comment on Pavilion discussions. (Or stay quiet.)

Michael, that would be (I think) a) topics that have been discussed once too often b) top ten lists c) questions he already answered d) most kinds of arguments since he doesn't enjoy moderating the Pavilion e) shallow discussions about most movies and tv shows f) probably more. I'm not sure if he enjoys diary-like postings but he never complained.

The old Webderland Forums link is still there. Barber might also put a forum link at the top of this thread (good idea in fact).

Note: I asked Barber to remove some of the one-line postings at the top of this thread because the links will always go to this page, and it should not make too negative an negative impression. (I think NeonMosfet won't mind, and I hope Frank understands why this is a good idea in the long run.) Now let's wait for some content or produce it ourselves.

One more thing I wanted to bring up regarding the forums. We could help visitors by using thread titles that are actually descriptive of the contents. No more "Enter the Mentor. . ." "Plenty to Do in Amereeka ", "WTF?!?!?", "Just something to think about!", "Whatever", "Outrage after outrage." In fact, some of these things can now simply be posted here.

Alan, Neon and Frank -- I removed a handful of little posts that weren't contributing to the core thread. Since they were the top of the thread -- and we want to get this moving with proper momentum, I took 'em off. The notes were pretty much just teasing.

If you object, please send me an IM and we can discuss.

- I love to find adventure. All I need is a change of clothes, my Nikon, an open mind and a strong cup of coffee.